Here Comes . . . the Monk!

Training. Discipline. Ki. Moving your unarmed fists faster than the average eye can see. All these and more await you in the monk class, which weâ??re making available to you right now. RIGHT NOW. Come take a look at how you can access the monk, plus read a little about the class before you let the monk loose in your game.

I love Deflect Missiles. Spend one die: deflect a missile. Spend another die: catch the missile. Spend another die: throw it back at the attacker.

I'm actually starting to like the idea of Expertise as something lots of classes can use, as long as they all use it in different ways. I think the only problem with the Rogue using expertise was that the way he used it was too similar to the way the Fighter used it. As we can see, the Monk with expertise dice still feels like a Monk.

Weapons and Armor: The monk's most obvious defining traits are the class's reliance on unarmed and unarmored fighting. I always liked 3E's use of Wisdom to improve a monk's AC, so we simply used that mechanic.

Because if there is one thing game designers love doing, it is making monks MAD as hell!

I love Deflect Missiles. Spend one die: deflect a missile. Spend another die: catch the missile. Spend another die: throw it back at the attacker.

I'm actually starting to like the idea of Expertise as something lots of classes can use, as long as they all use it in different ways. I think the only problem with the Rogue using expertise was that the way he used it was too similar to the way the Fighter used it. As we can see, the Monk with expertise dice still feels like a Monk.

Yeah, and the fact that the monk uses a combination of expertise dice and class abilities really works- it silos the abilities in what I think are really good ways.

I suspect with expertise dice, attack and save DC bonuses, etc. we'll see an "overlaps doesn't stack" philosophy when we get to the multiclassing rules. And I really like that approach.

I love Deflect Missiles. Spend one die: deflect a missile. Spend another die: catch the missile. Spend another die: throw it back at the attacker.

I'm actually starting to like the idea of Expertise as something lots of classes can use, as long as they all use it in different ways. I think the only problem with the Rogue using expertise was that the way he used it was too similar to the way the Fighter used it. As we can see, the Monk with expertise dice still feels like a Monk.

See, I'm not sure I agree here, especially with that last part.

The monk-only maneuvers are very cool, and hopefully indicative of where they're going with maneuvers in general (extra benefits for spending more dice). But the monk doesn't even get to choose a maneuver (or ANY other class feature) until 4th level, which is unique (in a bad way) among the current playtest classes. Meanwhile, he's got Ki powers tacked on there, which could be cool except that he can only use it for the bleh Stunning Strike until fifth level, when it becomes a nice self-heal.

IMHO, Wholeness of Body and Stunning Strike could both be turned into maneuvers fairly easily. Make Wholeness of Body expend an HD (and maybe give the monk a bonus HD or two) and make Stunning Strike just a normal maneuver, maybe DC=10+(your highest expertise die roll).

Or alternately, you could give the monk a bunch more ki points and have him spend them instead of expertise dice, so the monk becomes a daily-power melee class.

But having both systems in there side by side, in this current iteration at least, seems clunky.

Basically, by having two different power-delivery systems side by side, the flexibility of the class is limited. "Monk" is a very broad class concept just begging for further subdivision: monastic schools focusing in mystic arts, in raw physical endurance, in wire-fu mobility, and so on. By tying monks into the apparently universal expertise mechanic, the possibilities are limited.

I also want to say that I'm a bit disappointed they've drifted away from the concrete and interesting flavor text of the sorcerer and warlock classes and towards a more vanilla, functional style. What is a monk? Well, apparently he fights unarmed and is lawful. And they exist in Greyhawk. Again, some more concrete sub-classes would probably help here, just as the fey-pact backstory and the sorcerous origin powers helped define those classes in interesting ways.